Perfect album for your next country drive…
If there’s ever been an Aussie act that’s been a consistent force for good and purity in the local music scene, it would without a doubt be Sydney trio Middle Kids. For years now they’ve delivered killer tunes imbued with the Aussie grit and love of life in conjunction with vivid storytelling and instrumental bravado. And whether they’re playing at your typical festival, sideshow or even live stream (COVID things right?), that balance translates, that duality holds strong.
Their latest album Today We’re The Greatest sees them prove, well, exactly that. With a refined sonic palette that tugs on the heartstrings ever so gently, lead singer Hannah and her band of musos take the party to your heart as they sing about universal themes like love, loss and growth. And although it’s a record that’s declarative and minces no words upon a literal first glance, it’s a conceptual gem, a multi-layered sonic installation that ebbs and flows in deliciously complex fashion. From the spring-infused chirping in ‘Golden Star’ to the heart pounding outro in ‘Run With You,’ the album is textured celebration of life, sound and vulnerability, and it’s made for the trio’s richest work yet.
We caught up with lead singer Hannah from the band to get deep on the record, pick her brains on the more conceptual parts of it and of course, find out the deets behind that beautiful sonogram inclusion in ‘Run With You.’
Check it below.
I’ve caught you at such an exciting time. Your album drops in two days and you’ve got a new music video out tomorrow. How are the pre-release nerves?
They’re good! I mean, because we’ve been sitting on this awhile, it’s a welcome energy because we basically forgot that we made a record and this last week been like, “Oh shit! Yeah, we made a record and we like it. That’s cool.”
After everything is out on Friday and you’ve released it into the world, how are you planning on celebrating? Are we going hard or just kicking back and relaxing?
Good question! We have many celebrations planned. We have a listening party, like show on Thursday night, the night before. We’ll go hard then, and then we’re going out for brunch. And then we’re going to see a comedy show on Friday night. There’s this duo called Bear Pack and they play a lot in Redfern. I love them. They have a show, we’re going to see that. We’re just going to really do it, because it’s been awhile and it’ll feel good.
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Now congrats on the album! This record really feels like you’re stepping into yourself and have this really courageous vibe going into the next chapter. Is that accurate?
Yeah, I think so. I think we’re really trying to stretch ourselves musically and we really wanted to make something that still had the essence of Middle Kids, but was definitely a new reflection of that. I think for any artist, when you attempt to do that and you feel you are able to do that, it’s a very satisfying creative experience. So I think it’s nice to have that because regardless of how it goes or what lies ahead, the experience of making it was very meaningful for us.
The album title is so bombastic and declaring. What’s the story behind it? On what day were you the greatest?
It just hit me one day. I was like, “Oh shit, we’re the greatest. Wow” [laughs]. Nah, it really came out of that song. The closing song on the record is the title track and I think a lot of this record explores the every day and also the magic of life. I think the more we can live in the moment and just engage with what has been given to us, that’s when you can live a great life. It’s not specifically about us being the greatest, but to live a great human story is one where you just do what’s in front of you, whether it’s big and exciting or little and boring. But that’s your life and that’s how we feel like we’re trying to live a great life.
Just going off that ethos, I’d assume an album like this would be exploding at the seams with energy. But it’s one of your most dialled back projects yet. Was that a duality you were conscious of?
Yeah, I think that’s something that we’re always trying to find a balance of in our music. Or even as you say, like holding two things at once, whether it’s two different energies or the good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, all of the things. I think musically, this follows suit more in that way, as opposed to our previous album, which is a lot more high energy, bursting at the seams. This one has more space and more softer moments and I think it makes sense with a lot of the themes and the lyrical content for there to be that ebb and flow of energy on this record.
You said you wanted to make music that loves the listener, that makes them feel seen. Is there a track on the project that sort of embodies that the most? Or do they all do it in different ways?
That’s a cool question. I mean, it’s hard to know because obviously you don’t know who the hell you’re singing to or for, because you can only do your thing. I feel like the more you can reveal yourself in a poetic, artistic way, the more chance there is for resonance with other people. So I think that this album strives to do that generally. I probably couldn’t pick a specific song, but I think that throughout most of these songs, there is a revelation of a truth or of an experience.
I know for me as a listener, listening to music, when someone does that, when they share their story in a format that I like, so it’s a specific genre or whatever, I find that that is a cool way that I can really connect with it. So, I don’t know. I think music’s mysterious in a lot of ways, you just make it and put it out there and you don’t really know what it does. But I think that was the framing for a lot of the songs. And from my experience and the way music’s been so profound for me, I’m trying to share that with others.
Coming up as a music fan and artist, what artists and albums did that for you?
I think I can look back on my musical journey in terms of listening and really see that there were specific artists along the way that almost… it felt like they narrated my life. Whether they were albums going on just in the background in my life and were dealing with themes or stories that I felt like “Oh, I deal with that.” I mean, these wouldn’t necessarily be my favourite artists. They are in some ways. But some of them that come to mind straight away are Radiohead or The National, or some of these really verbose artists who just have a lot of lyrics.
And a lot of the times with the imagery and emotion, you don’t even know what they’re singing about. But it’s connecting with something deep and I feel like, yeah, it’s cool, I can really hear a lot of their voices in my head, just going around.
I also wanna mention ‘Run With You.’ It’s so beautiful in that you have your baby Sunny’s sonogram in the last 20 seconds of the track. What was the reasoning behind that?
Well, I think part of our reasoning of doing that is just… I think we’re really interested in sound as well as music, because you’ve got a few different things going on into that, all of which communicates something. Whether it’s lyrics or music or melody and then actual, just physical sound, and how something that’s so wonderful about songs is the coming together of all those different things.
There are a few cool moments on this record where the relationship between all those things sync up. And Tim has a wonderful, quite natural relationship with sound, he’s just listening a lot to everything. He just notices stuff a lot so he’s always recording things that just sound like noise to me.
The first time you heard it interwoven properly with the track, what was your immediate reaction?
That was just a cool moment being in the hospital and listening to Sunny’s heartbeat. And I think we just had this library of sounds from Tim just always recording things and we thought it made sense with the message of the song and even the fact that I wrote a lot of these songs and recorded them while being pregnant. So, Sunny’s journey into this world even had a big part this album’s journey into the world, so it was cool to interweave those in a track. And when we did put it on, it was just a really cool moment where we were like, “Oh, that is so special!” So yeah.
I wanna broaden it out a bit. After ‘Lost Friends’ you guys did the inevitable trip to the states to record the album. I feel like us Aussies who’ve never done anything like that assume those trips are filled with parties and rowdiness. Can you enlighten us?
I mean, it’s cool. I think we actually have spent so much time in LA over the years that we feel very familiar with it, because it’s kind of like a port. Coming from Sydney, whenever we’d start an American tour, we’d start and end in LA. And once Sunny was three months, we were actually meant to relocate there so it does feel a second home. And it is, the tropes are tropes, but they’re also real. There’s a lot of fun to be had in LA, but at the same time, there’s a lot of work to be done as well. I think it’s like, you always have the intention of wanting to have a good time, but then also wanting to make things.
When we went specifically to make this record, I don’t know if we went anywhere else besides our house and the studio. Because we had 14 days, we had 12 songs to bang out and it was crazy. We’d leave in the morning and then we’d come home in the middle of the night, so we never even saw daylight. It was actually nuts. But also, that’s totally a part of the LA experience. There is an environment there to play hard, but then also to work really hard. The producer, Lars Stalfors, totally facilitated that and was totally on our wavelength. So yeah, that specific trip was just totally heads down, making the things.
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Just to cap off, you’ve got some killer shows coming up in may in some pretty cool and unique venues. How do you reckon the album is gonna translate live in those spaces?
I think it’s going to be quite different. And I think part of that is the space, but part of that is also the fact that everyone has to sit down because of COVID and whatnot. And I think we’re really thinking about how to incorporate that into the night because we’re so used to playing high energy shows with lots of singing and dancing and jumping, and you have to pivot a little bit and try and think of how to put on a special Middle Kids show in that kind of environment.
We feel really excited and feel like this record could, and we think will, work really well in these kinds of rooms because of the kind of tracks they are and the instrumentation they have on there. So we’re just so pumped to play these shows because we think even from a musical standpoint, it will be really special. And one of our favourite things is being with people and sharing that music together, so we’re just pumped for it.
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Lastly, you said that the defining bit of the album is the idea of holding the brokeness or beauty and the sort of duality in that. When people embrace that aspect of art, what do you reckon it does for them? And what has it done for you?
I think that is how to live a holistic life. It’s a whole, but it’s a very, like… What’s the word? It’s a raw way to live, because you can ignore things and not go to places and protect yourself. So your bandwidth is smaller, but if you want to have a wider bandwidth, you do have to hold it all, the good and the bad, and go deeper in both of the two. And I think from that, you’re more fruitful. I feel I’m more fruitful and my life is more fruitful. Whether that’s in terms of my creativity, my art and my craft, I think I am. But even experientially, I feel like I have more joy in my life.
Sometimes you can experience more sorrow, but you start realizing that human strength and capacity is so great and large. So I think that when you can strive to live in that tension, as you say, and try to do it all… But we don’t do it perfectly. But the journey of life feels like you’re trying to get there, trying to be in it. It feels like that’s where the good soil is, where life can really thrive. And so I think that’s really important to all three of us, to try and sit in that place, you know?
Middle Kids’ new album ‘Today We Are The Greatest is out now. You can buy/ stream it here. You can cop tickets to their upcoming shows here.
